Electra reveals 100-seat hybrid-electric aircraft concept

The company advanced the design under a NASA programme and does not say it intends to bring the aircraft to market.

US hybrid-electric aircraft developer Electra has designed a conceptual “turbo-electric” aircraft capable of carrying more than 100 passengers, completing the work as part of a NASA advanced aircraft development programme.

The concept, which Electra revealed on 8 June, could “deliver up to a 17% efficiency improvement beyond gains expected by 2050 from advanced structures, engine technologies and aerodynamic improvements,” the Virginia company says.

Electra is better known for the EL9, a nine-seat hybrid-electric aircraft it is developing and aims to have certificated before the end of the decade.

The firm does not say it intends to develop the newly revealed “100+ passenger” aircraft and does not immediately respond to requests for more information from FlightGlobal.

Electra developed the large airliner concept as part of NASA”s Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability 2050 (AACES) programme, under which the agency commissioned private firms and academia to study advanced aircraft technologies.

Besides Electra, Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, blended-wing-body aircraft developer JetZero and Pratt & Whitney participated in NASA’s AACES programme.

“We can radically improve how the airframe and propulsion system work together while keeping the aircraft grounded in real airline and airport operations,” says Electra director of product strategy Parker Vascik. “The goal is not just efficiency on paper, but concepts that we can actually build, certify and use.”

Electra’s large airliner concept has a “double-bubble” fuselage that itself would generate lift and be sufficiently wide to accommodate two cabin aisles.

Two underwing turbofans would produce thrust, and also electricity, to power three fans mounted atop of the aft fuselage.

Those fans would “ingest and re-energise slower-moving air over the fuselage, a technique known as boundary layer ingestion,” Electra says, adding that the concept would fit within existing airports and gates, burn standard fuel and not require charging infrastructure.

Electra chief engineer of research and future concepts Alejandra Uranga developed the concept. Uranga previously, while working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), helped lead NASA-sponsored research that advanced the double-bubble aircraft concept, Electra says.

“What is different now is the ability to use electrification and distributed propulsion to more-deeply integrate those systems,” Uranga says. “Designing the aircraft as a whole system is essential to realising the full potential of future commercial aircraft.”

Electra developed the design in partnership with American Airlines, Honeywell Aerospace, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, electric-machinery firm Hinetics, MIT, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Irvine.